This Sunday, November 17, in the Jura, checks were carried out on several hunting grounds in the department. Around the orange vests and rifles, other uniforms, those of the gendarmerie, but also of the French Office for Biodiversity.
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Tracking not game, but the safety of hunters and forest users. This Sunday, the services pulled out all the stops. A MISEN operation (Mission Inter-services for Water and Nature) brought together gendarmes, agents of the departmental territorial management, agents of the National Forestry Office, and the OFB, French office of biodiversity.
These hunters who had set out to kill woodcocks were surprised by a check. “I check the concordance between three obligatory documents for hunting in this territory, namely the hunting license, the national validation for the current year, and the insurance certificate showing that this gentleman is insured in terms of liability civilian to practice hunting activity on the national territory” explains Jean-Yves Mathieu, deputy head of department at the OFB du Jura, speaking to our journalist Norbert Evangelista.
The harvest log is also checked.
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© Hugues Perret – France Télévisions
The gendarmes present will go further by also checking if the person is not wanted, if he or she is known from criminal records for drugs and alcohol levels. And if the hunter is behind the wheel, if he has a driving license.
The State's objective is to ensure compliance with safety rules by hunters to move towards a goal of zero accidents at the national level. Alongside the control of security rules, we also control the collection of cash.
Jean-Yves Mathieu, deputy head of department at the Jura OFB.
Under the gaze of journalists, because this operation also aimed to communicate the existence of controls, the hunters of the day are in order with their papers. Game is also controlled. But this morning, no woodcock in the bag. The hunters do not seem surprised by these unexpected checks.
It's normal, everyone does their job. The hunting license remains in our hunting clothes. It's normal, you need a license to ride, you need a license to hunt.
Alexis, Jura hunter
Woodcock hunters, they are in good standing.
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© Hugues Perret – France Télévisions
Further reduce the number of hunting accidents
During the 2023/2024 hunting season, 97 hunting accidents were recorded, compared to 78 the season before. These accidents left six dead, only among the hunters.
Over the last 20 years, there have been fewer and fewer hunting accidents, with a drop of 42% in accidents overall and 77% in fatal cases.
But accidents still happen. A competition mare was killed by a hunter's shot in Isenay (Nièvre), Wednesday November 6. The horse was worth 30,000 euros and was on private property.
In the accidents recorded during big game hunting – which accounts for more than half of the accidents – the main cause comes from non-compliance with the 30° angle. This rule stipulates that it is forbidden to shoot to the left and right at more than 30°, points beyond which shooting represents a danger for other hunters. Then come the handling concerns. For the moment, Jura is not a department where the materialization of 30° shooting on the ground is obligatory.
To make hunting action even more secure, since September 2023, hunters carrying weapons and caught drunk are exposed to a so-called 5th class fine, of up to 1,500 euros and even 3,000 euros in the event of of recurrence.
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